The great gospel; an address to theological graduates, lectures on the gospels for the church year, and "that remarkable lodge sermon."

Front matter

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

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Preface

CHEKE are many sermons on the Gospels in the many languages used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but it is a question whether the public has ever read Lutheran sermons like these.

1. Not one of these sermons was written by the author. In a church of fifteen hundred communicants, where three new sermons are required each week, not to mention the many extra funeral sermons and addresses, it is simply impossible to write the sermons. The author will always thank God for His reducing these sermons to writing, by the skillful hand of Miss Florence M. Welty, and shall consider it providential that he was compelled to preach his first sermon at Capital University in the place of a sick theological student before the last half was written. He has since written many sermons, but he neved preached more than one-half of one written sermon.

2. These sermons are all new. All were preached verbatim, as contained in this book from Advent, 1903, to Advent, 1904, with the exception of the lodge sermon. The subjects and the sermons are all new. No one who knows the author will doubt for one moment that they are original. It is one thing to read sermons written in the study and gathered in years of careful preparation, and quite another thing to read exactly what the congregation actually gets in the morning sermons of one year. Multiply this book by three, and you will have one year's food given to the First Lutheran Church of Mansfield, O. We wish we could do better.

IV PREFACE.

3. We make no apology for giving this book to the world. A large congregation crowded a large temple to listen to these sermons. What patience! One man would not listen to these sermons because, he said, the author was the first man lie ever listened to who said absolutely nothing. All this time the church was crowded at every service to hear "nothing." They say that man had his toes tramped by "nothing." The author has aimed to preach God's eternal truth at any cost and to leave his testimony in this world after his death on the Great Gospel and the burning questions of the day.

4. His OAvn trials by death and sickness in his family have moulded many of these sermons, and may comfort others in trouble. "Eejoice evermore."

5. Hoping to see the day when there shall be one true Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in name and practice, the author hereby dedicates this work to God, whose true Word it proclaims.

Mansfield, O., December, 1904.

Table Of Contents

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Pi'Li'iT Power 1

Advent Sunday : — A Remarkable Ride 18

I. Who was the greatest Man that was ever born?

Answer: The God-man.

His person was the greatest. He was not only the greatest in person ; He was the greatest as a physician ; He was the greatest as a preacher. A message was sent by John the Baptist to this God-man: Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? The answer, after the discipies had seen and heard, proved to John that He was the God-man.

1. As to His person, there never was one like Him. Jesus of Nazareth, needed, promised, came, and no other Savior ever shall come. He was needed. This poor, lost condemned world, with immortal souls, needed a Savior. The world always needed Him. Why would the heathen ever sacrifice, if they did not feel that something must be sacrificed for their sins? Why has the whole world been worshiping some kind of god, if it were not that they felt that we must have a savior? There was no question in John's mind about the fact that a savior was promised. He did not send a message, asking, Shall one come? He took it for granted that a savior must come, but, Art thou He that should come, or shall we look for another? The Savior is promised and He has come. Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and the Son of man. Luther in the explanation of the second article says : "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord." So confesses every Lutheran ; so confesses every Christian. I do not care who he may be, the one who denies that Jesus Christ is Son of God and

Son of Man, has not got Him for a Savior. This Savior never shall come again in humility. The Jews are still looking for the Messiah. Suppose this coming Christmas another child should be born in Bethlehem, with all the seeming qualities of this little Son of God that was born nearly two thousand years ago ; suppose all the Jews should go back to Jerusalem and say: "This is the Messiah. We, too, have seen his star come from the East. We, too, have heard the angels singing 'Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, good will to men!' " how would the Jews know that the child born this Christmas is the Son of David? Have you forgotten that only a short time after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, the Eoman soldiers gathered around Jerusalem and tore down the walls, burned the temple and destroyed the only record on God's earth that shows that Jesus was the Son of David? It would be impossible in the present day to show that any child came from the seed of David. God's Providence was wise when the temple was burned, to say: Now the record shall be destroyed because the greatest One who ever lived is born.

2. Not only is this true concerning His person, but it is also true concerning Him as a Physician. When these two disciples went over to see Jesus, they found Him very busy. Luke tells us that at the very time the disciples arrived, He was performing some wonderful miracles. What were they? Eg was expelling death. Let us try to imagine that we are present with those two disciples while Jesus is expelling death. First of all, there stands a blind man ; one who was never able to see, and this greatest Man that ever lived, the God-man walks up to him and touches his eyes and says, "Be open," and the man looks, and beholds the multitudes, and he beholds nature for the first time, and begins to praise God ; and the two disciples of John say : "Did you ever see anything like this?"

There comes a lame man carried by others, for he cannot walk ; his feet are dead. The Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest man that ever lived, looks at him and says: "Stand up," and the man who never walked before stands up and leaps for joy, and the disciples say: "Did you ever see anything like' this?"

There comes a band of men in the distance, and they cry at the top of their voices: "Unclean! Unclean!" Jesus Christ is interested in them; the disciples of John cannot say a word to Him; He walks over to them, for the law does not allow them to come to Him, and looks at the lepers. He says to them : "Be clean," and the decayed flesh is restored to the flesh of youth, and the men who were living dead people, are now living living people ; and the disciples, who knew that leprosy was an incurable disease, said : "Did you ever see anything like this?"

But that is not the end of it. There comes a long procession of people. Lo, and behold, there comes a mother walking behind the bier, weeping, wringing her hands in agony, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest Man that ever lived, walks up and lays His hand on the bier, and says to the young man, "Arise!" and the dead man arises, and Jesus takes him by the hand and says, "Here, mother, is your only boy," and the good old mother throws her arms around her boy's neck and kisses and loves him, and the disciples of John say : "Did you ever see anything like that?" They saw something that day that they never saw before — they saw Jesus expel death ; — death from the eyes, for what are blind eyes but dead eyes? — death from the feet, for what are feet that cannot walk, but dead feet? — death from the blood, for what are lepers but those who have death in their blood? — death from the ears, for lo and behold, there stands a deaf man, and the great God-man walks up and puts His fingers into his ears and says "Be open," and the man hears, and the disciples say, "Did you ever see anything like that?" The great Godman has expelled death from the deaf. The great God-man has expelled death from the grave; the open grave does not receive its dead that day. The disciples saw this, and they saw the greatest Physician that ever lived.

3. They not only saw that He was a great physician, but they heard that He was the greatest Preacher that ever lived. After Christ healed these people he did not send them home. He did not come into this w 7 orld simply to make blind men see and lame men walk and deaf men hear and lepers well and to raise the dead, but He came first of all to preach unto them salvation, and after this multitude of very poor people had seen these wonderful things, the disciples were still ordered to stand back. "I have a sermon to preach/' says the great Preacher. He said : (I am only giving you the spirit of the text of the morning) Here is a man who had eyes and could not see, but I would have you all remember that spiritually you are as blind as this man, and I preach unto you this morning words of life that must make you see God's word as you never saw it before. I would have you remember that just as this man who is here with dead limbs, could not walk, this great multitude has not been walking in the paths of righteousness; you have not been walking in the paths that lead to heaven ; you are walking on the path that leads to destruction." I hold up your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the greatest Man that ever lived, and see this great Preacher as He stands before them telling them a Look at those lepers, the very flesh decayed from their bodies, they that stand in the distance and cry out 'Unclean ! Unclean!' but 1 want to tell you that those lepers are just as fit to step into our midst without being healed, as you are to step into the kingdom of heaven in your sins ; you have an incurable disease; you are unclean, but I want you to understand that your sins shall be washed away by the blood that I shall shed for you when I die on Calvary. I would have you remember that as this man to whom I gave hearing, was deaf, so you are spiritually deaf to the Word of God. I want your ears to be open from now on, — not to hear the world singing, not to hear the messages of men — I have opened this man's ears, and I want your ears all open to hear the wonderful message of the Word of God." So He kept on preaching : "I would have you remember that I did not raise this man from the dead because it was better to live than to die, but to let you understand that you who are spiritually dead can be raised up. I can do it and I will do it, if you will give me your attention ; I can raise the spiritually dead."

Oh, He preached such a sermon that day as had never been preached before. Then came the disciples of John to Him, and He gave them a farewell message. He said : "Now you can go back, and you can tell John what you have seen and what you have heard, and this is the message that I would have you deliver him : 'The blind receive their sight ;

the lame walk ; the lepers are cleansed ; the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he Avhosoever shall not be offended in me.' "

Oh, what a word of comfort from the greatest Preacher that ever lived, to poor John, down in the prison !

II

I hold up to you to-day not only the greatest Man that ever lived, but also another one, who was the next greatest.

Who was the next greatest man that ever lived?

I answer: John the Baptist,

1. None ever lived closer to his master.

2. None was ever more intensely tested.

3. None was ever more faithful to Jesus Christ.

1. I say none ever lived closer to Christ. There is a wonderful connection between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. They both were children of prophecy. You remember that the Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied throughout the Old Testament, and you will remember that Jesus said of John in our text : For this is he of whom it is written, "Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee." John is the only man who was ever made the subject of prophecy in connection with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and therefore the Savior says of him : "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."

There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist 1 Why? Because there was never another man who himself was the subject of prophecy, except John. Why? Because John himself, as well as the Savior, were both announced by the same angel. You will remember when Zechariah was burning incense, there stood before him an angel, and that angel said: "I am Gabriel, and there shall be born unto Elizabeth a son, and his name shall be called John." You will remember that six months afterwards, the same angel came to Mary and said : a Thou shalt bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus, and he shall save his people from their sins." Both of them were announced by the very same angel. The greatest man, next to Jesus, that ever lived!

Both were miraculously born. It is distinctly said in the first chapter of Luke, that Elizabeth was old and barren. For her to bring forth a son was a miracle ; as much so as it was a miracle that a virgin should conceive and bear the Lord Jesus Christ. John, then, the greatest man besides Jesus that was ever on earth, a miraculous birth. Jesus Christ a miraculous birth.

John was the one who laid his hands upon Christ and baptized Him in the river Jordan. It is not, as our good Baptist friends say, that he immersed Him. The Bible does not say so. When He was baptized He came up out of the water ; the baptism was finished before He ever came out of the water, and there is not one thing in the Bible to show whether Jesus Christ had the water poured on Him, whether it was sprinkled on Him, or whether He was immersed, not one word. That verse that some people quote: "Therefore we are buried with Christ by baptism unto death ; that like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life," does not say one word about immersion. It does not say we are buried with Christ into baptism; it does not say we are buried in the water ; it says "we are buried with Him by baptism into his death" If that verse means we must be immersed, it means that Jesus Christ was buried in the river Jordan. If it means immersed, it means you and I have got to go down into the river, lie there three days, as Jesus did, before we come up out of the water. That word of God simply stated that this great fact, that Jesus was dead, and buried, and that by baptism we receive the benefits of His burial, whether you have the water poured on you, whether you are sprinkled, or whether immersed. John did not say "I immerse," he said "I baptize with water ;" but I call your attention to the fact, whether by immersion, sprinkling, or pouring John did baptize Him, and he is the only man on earth who ever had the privilege of baptizing the Son of God, the greatest Man that ever lived.

Not only did he baptize Him, but he was the only prophet who could take the people and lead them up, and say, "Here

THIRD SUNDAY IX ADVENT. 53

is Jesus; touch Him and handle Him; Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Isaiah was looking for Jesus to come ; Ezekiel was looking for Jesus to come ; Daniel was looking for Jesus to come; Jeremiah was looking for Jesus to come; all the prophets were looking for Him to eonie; but the subject of prophecy, John the Baptist was born before Jesus Christ was, laid his hands upon Him ; baptized Him; led the people to Him and said "Here He is!" The greatest man in the Avorld in the presence of the God-man.

2. Not only was he closer to Jesus Christ than any other man that ever lived, but he was tested as intensely as any man that ever lived.

There are two errors which we must try to get rid of in the very beginning, concerning this text. A great many scoffers and infidels have held this text up as a comfort to themselves, saying, "John the Baptist himself was an infidel." They say that John, even though he baptized Christ, got to doubting Him in the prison and sent his disciples out to find out whether He was the Christ or not. I call your attention to the fact that even the devil himself cannot make you doubt a thing you see with your own eyes; the devil himself cannot make me doubt that this Bible is a book ; he can only make me doubt a message which I hear. Nor is there one word that would indicate that John ever did doubt Jesus, and after these two disciples had left the multitude, Jesus said to them: "What went ye out into the wilderness to see, a reed shaken with the wind?" I call your attention to the Tact that John was not a reed shaken with the wind ; John was no infidel ; he was not a man who was doubting.

Then the other error, which is just as great, is this, that many people think that John the Baptist simply used that as a means to send these two disciples over to get them to hear Christ; that it was simply a missionary spirit on the part of John. While I will not deny that John the Baptist might have had in mind that his disciples ought to hear and see more of Jesus Christ, yet I call your attention to the fact that they had heard the message in the prison; it wasn't necessary to send them out; they had seen and heard Him before.

What is the real truth concerning the condition of John the Baptist? The real truth is this : John the Baptist was in great trouble and felt offended at Christ; and there was a reason for this. John the Baptist made the same mistake in his day that Christians are making in the present day. John the Baptist, reading over in the Book of Isaiah, had read something about the coming of Christ, and he never distinguished between the first Advent and the second ; whenever it spoke of Christ's coming, John believed that he was coming and would change the world immediately and settle everything. He made the same mistake that you and I are making concerning the resurrection. There are verses in the Old Testament and in the New that would picture the resurrection as being a day when the Lord shall come in the twinkling of an eye, and raise the dead in a minute. If you will read the 20th chapter of Revelations you will find that there will be a first resurrection and a second resurrection. There are verses in the Bible where you can read that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and you imagine that judgment day and his being incarnate are all one great act; and that is the mistake that John made. He had been reading some verses in the Bible like these:

"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongues of the dumb sing ; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." Isaiah 35, 4-6.

He had read :

"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prisons, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah 42, 6-8.

He had read in the 61st chapter of Isaiah, in the first three verses, these words:

a The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the

T1IIUI) SUNDAY IN ADVENT. ;>.)

meek; lie that sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year ol the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified."

He understood that prophecy as we sang this morning:

"He comes the pris'ners to release, In Satan's bondage held ; The gates of brass before him burst; The iron fetters yield."

In other words : John had told Herod that he committed a great crime and sin when he married his brother's wife and was living in adultery. Herod put him in prison for one longyear; John the Baptist sits there in that prison and Christ never comes to see him. Poor John is offended. He had read the prophecy and believed surely that when Christ would come he would carry out the promise to deliver the captives and let men out of prison, and there he was sitting day after day, week after week and month after month, and Jesus never helped him out of prison, or even came to see him, and he was deeply offended. He wondered after all, What is wrong? The question with him was not, Is there a Savior coming? The question with him was not, Is that the one I baptized? but, There is something wrong; He is not helping me; not coming to see me ; I must find out what is wrong and I will send my disciples to Him and let Him know I am in trouble. "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" He was offended. And therefore Jesus sent the answer back : "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."

These things are nothing new, my friends. Now and then we meet with people who used to think that when once we are Christians we have no temptations any more; no trials any more ; that then we are always living in high glee and good spirits. Oh, my friends, the man who is a true Christian will find days in his life when he will feel just as John felt, I want to ask you this morning as you sit before me, Have you not had trials in your own family that made you wonder whether after all God had not forsaken you? It is said of Bengel that he was one of the best of all exegetes, one of the best people and one of the best Christians who ever lived, and yet one day in his history it just seemed to him as if God had forsaken him ; it seemed to him as if the heavens were brass ; he tried to pray and could not; and in that utter despair he saw a little child on the street; he called to that child and said, "Come in," and as the little child came near he said, "Can you pray;" the little frightened child at first stood and stammered, but at last it remembered a little prayer that its mother had taught it, and it said as we sang this morning :

''Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress; 'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head. Amen."

That moment the trouble was gone, and Bengel said "Now let us pray;" he got down on his knees again, lifted his heart up to heaven, and the burden was gone, and God listened to him again.

3. There are trials that Christians have ; there are tests that come to us; there are offences that we sometimes feel when we think that God has forsaken us ; and yet I say to you this morning that John the Baptist trusted in Christ as faithfully as any man that ever lived. If he had been an infidel, he would not have sent his disciples to Jesus. Why did he send his disciples to Jesus Christ? Because that is the thing to do when you have your troubles and trials ; don't go around and talk to this man or that man, but go to your pastor, or, best of all, go right to Jesus Christ and tell him your trouble, and then you will find an answer, "Blessed is he that is not offended in me."

Not only did he go directly to Jesus, but he did all for Jesus that he possibly could. From his earliest infancy until the hour of his death, John the Baptist never let a day pass by without doing all that he possibly could for the Lord Jesus Christ. Before he was in prison he preached as never man preached before; when in prison he held the disciples there and taught them concerning the word of God, and taught them the mighty truths concerning their own souls. Not only that,. but I call your attention to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ had known what kind of man John was. Never in the history of the world did Jesus pass as high a compliment on any other man as on John the Baptist : "And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning John: What went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist!" The Lord Jesus Christ said this. Was John the Baptist a reed to be shaken by the wind? No, If he had been he would not have told Herod what he did. Was John the Baptist a foolish dude? No. You would not find him with kid gloves on, and with a silk hat on ; you would not find him trying to make a show with clothing. I suppose you have often noticed that all people on earth in some way try to make a show; if they have no knowledge or sense, they show it by their dress. John the Baptist was a man, every inch of him a man. It made no difference whether his clothing was made up of camel's hair or leather girdle; it made no difference whether he sat down to feast or not; locusts and wild honey were good enough for him; John the Baptist was thoroughly a man, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, and wherever he went, he stood like a giant and a monument; no shaking reed in him; no wind, or popular applause, could blow him to and fro; he had convictions and he stood up for them at any cost, and Christ said, there never was a greater man than John the Baptist.